Brian Johnston
Brian Johnston is a principal at Caldwell Cassady & Curry who focuses on intellectual property litigation and complex commercial litigation. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in all types of patent, trade secret, and copyright lawsuits in district courts across the nation and on appeal.
Prior to joining Caldwell Cassady & Curry, Brian was a partner in the intellectual property department at Baker Botts, where he played a key role in numerous high-profile cases, trials, and appeals. He brings years of courtroom experience and is well-versed in all aspects of litigation, from pre-suit investigations and early case strategy through jury trials and appeals.
Backed by his industry experience as an electrical engineer, Brian has represented companies and individuals in a wide variety of high technology disputes in fields such as semiconductors, electronics, telecommunications, networking, digital signal processing, and a variety of other hardware and software products. He previously served as a law clerk for the Hon. Nicholas G. Garaufis in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Hon. Jennifer Walker Elrod in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Court Admissions
Texas State Courts
New York State Courts
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Professional Memberships
Texas Bar Foundation
Federal Circuit Bar Association
Dallas Bar Association
New York University School of Law
J.D., magna cum laude, 2008
Rice University
B.S., Electrical Engineering, cum laude, 2005
Brad Caldwell is a trial lawyer who focuses on patent infringement and complex commercial litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. His courtroom success before judges, juries, and arbitration panels includes cases involving digital media, telecommunications and computer networking, data security, computer imaging, medical devices, enterprise software, banking technology, and oilfield services.
He has been named “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer magazine two different times based on record-setting patent infringement verdicts against Apple Inc. Those jury awards of $625.6 million and $302 million were ranked as the 6th and 9th largest verdicts in the nation during 2016. The year prior, Caldwell helped Smartflash LLC win a $532.9 million verdict against Apple that was the year’s top Texas verdict and the largest intellectual property verdict in the U.S., ranking third nationwide overall.
Before starting his legal career, Caldwell worked for a year as an electrical engineer at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, where he obtained a top-secret security clearance and was awarded multiple merit-based citations.
In addition to earning a spot in The Best Lawyers in America since 2016, Mr. Caldwell has been named one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America since 2014. He also has earned selection to the annual Texas Super Lawyers list since 2015, including being named in 2019 as one of the Top 100 attorneys in Dallas/Fort Worth, and the affiliated Texas Rising Stars list (2006-2009, 2011-2015) based on his work in patent cases. His role in helping a client win a $250 million patent verdict was featured in a 2009 profile article published by Super Lawyers magazine. In 2012, Mr. Caldwell was named a leading U.S. patent litigator by the publishers of The Legal 500, and he previously was honored by D Magazine in its annual listing of the Best Lawyers in Dallas Under 40.
Mr. Caldwell is licensed to practice before all Texas and New York state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to the formation of Caldwell Cassady & Curry, Mr. Caldwell was a principal at McKool Smith. At the University of Texas School of Law, he received the Dean’s Achievement Award in Patent Litigation. Before attending law school, Mr. Caldwell earned a degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University. He now serves as a member of the electrical engineering department’s External Advisory & Development Council. During an externship from Texas A&M, Mr. Caldwell worked for a year as an electrical engineer at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia, where he obtained a top-secret security clearance and was awarded multiple merit-based citations.
Firm Honors
- Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame (2019) – Texas Lawyer newspaper
- U.S. Firm to Watch (2018) – Managing Intellectual Property magazine
- Texas Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year (2017) – Texas Lawyer
- #1 U.S. Plaintiffs’ Patent Firm – IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Professionals
- Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2016 (3 verdicts) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- #1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2016) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- Top 50 Recoveries (2015-2016) – The National Law Journal
- Best Law Firms (2017) – The Best Lawyers in America/U.S. News & World Report
- Top Patent Damage Awards Won Since 2000 (2015) – Law360
- Top 100 U.S. Verdicts of 2015 – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch
- #1 Texas Intellectual Property Verdict (2015) – The National Law Journal/VerdictSearch